


Rise to Fall Again

by Fereael



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Chrom not so much, Gen, Grima fic, Grima is having a good day, Post-Canon, grima's back, it was fixed but now we're braking it again
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:35:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21965773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fereael/pseuds/Fereael
Summary: "Yet Chrom lived. The battle was over. The conflict had ended. The wars had been waged, the peace disrupted, so many cities and castles and lives destroyed, and yet Chrom lived. Why? Why was he still alive? Why? From the empty shattered chamber where she walked, pacing out the days, she could feel him, feel the pulse of the life of a king with the blood of an Exalt still burning throughout the land.“How?” She growled the word to the crumbling stone walls. She roared it to the dark of the night sky, visible above the jagged edges of the broken stone. How did Chrom still live?"Or Grima finally gets her chance to take her revenge
Relationships: Chrom & My Unit | Reflet | Robin
Kudos: 7





	Rise to Fall Again

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Vyndahlia](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Vyndahlia).



Yet Chrom lived. The battle was over. The conflict had ended. The wars had been waged, the peace disrupted, so many cities and castles and lives destroyed, and yet Chrom lived. Why? Why was he still alive? Why? From the empty shattered chamber where she walked, pacing out the days, she could feel him, feel the pulse of the life of a king with the blood of an Exalt still burning throughout the land.

“How?” She growled the word to the crumbling stone walls. She roared it to the dark of the night sky, visible above the jagged edges of the broken stone. How did Chrom still live?

Her army was scattered or destroyed, her undead forces, annihilated, her other self vanquished and gone to dust, yet still he lived. Still! Chrom’s life had not gone out, had not even flickered. Still he lived and would not fall. The other who burned with the Exalt’s fire, the messenger of the future, had vanished without a trace. Not dead, she thought, but disappeared somewhere, somehow, so far or so thoroughly that not even she could sense the messenger’s fire. She knew not how the masked warrior had vanished without even the slightest trace, but however the messenger had managed, she had done it, she had effectively removed herself from the battle field. Then there was that smaller flame, barely a flicker as yet. She would one day grow to be the masked messenger, one day become a threat to rival her father. One day. But one day was not yet. Now she was just a spark and while sparks could grow into forest fires given time, they didn’t have to, not when they were so easily snuffed out. No she would prove no problem. No problem, as long as her protector was removed, as long as her guardian was vanquished, as long as Chrom was dead. But Chrom lived. Chrom lived!

She paced the ruined tower. Paced the confines of her small domain, her broken kingdom, her destroyed land. Her power was all but spent, burnt away, absorbed by her other self. It would return to her in time. Slowly slowly it would return. But it would take years, so very many years, and for now her power was at such a low ebb that it could barely summon even a single risen to her side. She could not take on the Exalt in this state, not with all of Uyless and all of his allies by his side, not without her armies of risen, not without the power to summon more. She needed power to create more. Power from within would return eventually but power from without would do as well, if she could find some, take some, claim it for her own. But there was no power ready to her hand and she had not the strength yet to claim it, and so she paced.

She paced and she cursed Chrom’s name, and she spun her options over and over again in her head and always she returned to cursing Chrom and always she returned to pacing. Always. Until the day that she felt it. That other flame, dark and light and freer than it had been, but still so recognizable. She knew that fire, that power that was kind and yet not kin to her own. And she knew that the other, that _She_ , had returned. The one that Chrom called Robin. She should have been, slain, in the killing of her other self, but she lived and this she didn’t curse, this time she smiled, for this was it. The chance and the good fortune that she waited for. A plan was forming in her mind at long long last. She had herd this Robin talked of as a strategist. But had anyone ever wondered where one with no memory had learned such skills? No, of cores they hadn’t. Yet _she_ knew, _she_ knew all too well, after all they had come from her.

That fool who had rejected her divine power would go straight for Chrom of course, it was said that the two were inseparable. Yes she had no doubt that the fool would go to him assuming he didn’t fine her first that was, just as she had no doubt that Chrom would welcome the fool back with open arms, and grant her the freedom of his court. That much she knew of them, and that much was enough.

She had her plan.

***

The guards raised their spears to block her path, and her hand clenched into a fist within her pocket as sudden anger flared. How dare they? How dare they block her path? How dare they deny her? How dare they, flimsy mortals that they were, believe that they could bar her from anything she desired? Yet even has the range burned in her she kept herself face calm, her hands for calling upon power. Only a fool would give themself away so very easily. Instead she smiled, raising her unclenched hand her hood and brushing it back from her head to reveal her face. It was easy. so easy. She didn’t even have to say a word. The guards took one look at her face and raised their spears, even faster than they had lowered them. They even started apologizing, tripping over each other’s words and their own tongues to tell her that they hadn’t recognized her, that it was protocol to bar the paths of anyone who came to the gates after sundown, that they hadn’t realized that she was not already within for the night or they would have been watching for her, that they would of cores never presume to challenge or question when and where she chose to go, and again that they were sorry for their presumption.

She smiled kindly at them and told them that it was fine, that it was an honest mistake, that she was glad to see them guarding Chrom so very well, but that she was in a hurry to see him now and must press on. And so the guards opened the doors and stuff aside and so she entered the castle.

She kept her hood down and that foolishly placid smile on her face as she walked the halls and no one challenged her. The servants bowed and curtsied as she passed and the knights gave her nods that she returned, but nun challenged her, not a single one of them. The fools.

At last she heard voices up ahead, two of them. One belonged to the knight, but the other, the other, the other was the one she sought. Could it really be so easy? She stepped up to the door and pushed it open, not bothering to knock. Both heads swiveled toward her. Two looks of surprise greeted her, as sudden silence fell, their conversation cut off. After a moment it was Chrom who broke the silence.

“Robin? I thought you had gone to bed. Is something wrong?”

“Chrom. Sorry to disturb you. I need to talk with you about something. It’s important. Do you mind if we talk alone?”

“Of course.” The look Chrom gave her was a mix of care and concern, without even a flicker of distrust and it was an effort to keep the smugness from her lips. “Fredric you may go.”

The knight gave a nod, first to him and then to her, and turned to go. “I’ll be down in the armory checking over the gear my lord. Please call on me if either of you need anything.”

“Of course, but Fredric, please make sure to get some rest as well. We can resume our talk in the morning.”

“Yes my lord.”

_In the morning_ , now she did smile to herself a little, _in the morning things will be very different._

Chrom turned back to her as the door closed.

“Is something amusing?”

“I will tell you in a moment.” She made her smile kinder, more gentle. She stepped forward toward him and he didn’t flinch away. “But there’s something else first.” She was right in front of him now and he still so unafraid.

“Is there something wrong then?” He cocked his head to the side, considering her. “You do look a little strained.”

She razed one hand and pressed it against his chest so that she could feel the beating of his heart. It was beating fast yet so much slower than hers. Hers was raising, pounding, with the moment. Could he really be right there? Could it really be so easy?

He stilled at her touch, just watching her, waiting to see what she would do next. She took a breath, and called it to her, the very last ebb of her power.

His eyes widened for a moment, as though he saw something in her face that startled him. And then the lightning pierced his heart. His eyes widened, shock and pain and betrayal writing themselves across his features in quick secession.

“But… but why?”

Now she did let her smile show, her true smile, her true face.

His eyes widened even more and she saw realization in them even as they began to dim.

“then you ..you are…” He managed to force the words out before his voice failed him and he was reduced to struggling for air. She twisted the lightning in his chest and his moth opened again in a silent cry, proving that he truly had lost the ability of speech. And then the power came, rushing into her, power from within him, pooling around them both even as his body shuddered its way toward stillness, and she reached for him again. Here it was, the power she had sought, an external power, a power that would restore and in restoring her create for her a champion to stand for her. Grima smiled down at the limp form before her. He would wake again soon, her champion, her knight, her fallen risen king.


End file.
